Hey all! this is my first post here. here's a little back story so you can hopefully help me out a little better. sorry for the novel.
i have a knee injury in which most people would call "water on the knee" i'm not 100% sure what it means, but from all the DR.'s visits, i understand that basically my thigh muscle grew too much and pulled my knee cap, thus "shredding" the cartilage and oozing some type of juice. (gross, i know) my left knee is always filled with this juice and is quite honestly double the size of my right knee. the DR. said it as most likely caused by the tennis, cycling (BMX ) skateboarding, and snowboarding i did.
the worse part is, i'm only 21 years old and this injury came about around 6 years ago. i've had it drained many many times. the last time it was drained, it had filled up with the juice back 100% before we even made it back home.... after that, i've been taking the "it'll go away on it's own" approach, but by now, i don't think that's going to happen. i have learned to live with it. and it's fine for the most part, never really hurts or bothers me. though, after a long day of driving in traffic when i'm holding the clutch in for long periods of time it's starts to hurt. i also cannot bend it much past 90 degrees. not from pain, but because there's simply too much fluid inside.
fast forward to today and why i'm here. i recently got into road cycling, saved up and bought my first real bike early last summer. my buddy and i rode together about 2-3 times a week, anywhere from 10 to 30 miles a day. i'm VERY much enjoying it and i even joined a cycling club and plan on doing a 200 mile "race" from seattle to portland this summer. but, nothing has changed with my knee. last summer when i first got my bike, i just ignored it because i was having too much fun riding and i didn't want my knee to bring me down.
now my question. what should i do about this? my bicycle fits me correctly, and when my knee is bent with my left pedal at the top, it almost reaches the point where it will not bend anymore. my fear is that if it does get worse, i wont be able to bend my knee as much as i need to and i will not be able to ride anymore. =[
ice/ heat doesn't seem to help any. but i don't want to just ignore it anymore. even more so now, since that 200 mile race this summer.
any and all help is welcome. thank you very much.
i have a knee injury in which most people would call "water on the knee" i'm not 100% sure what it means, but from all the DR.'s visits, i understand that basically my thigh muscle grew too much and pulled my knee cap, thus "shredding" the cartilage and oozing some type of juice. (gross, i know) my left knee is always filled with this juice and is quite honestly double the size of my right knee. the DR. said it as most likely caused by the tennis, cycling (BMX ) skateboarding, and snowboarding i did.
the worse part is, i'm only 21 years old and this injury came about around 6 years ago. i've had it drained many many times. the last time it was drained, it had filled up with the juice back 100% before we even made it back home.... after that, i've been taking the "it'll go away on it's own" approach, but by now, i don't think that's going to happen. i have learned to live with it. and it's fine for the most part, never really hurts or bothers me. though, after a long day of driving in traffic when i'm holding the clutch in for long periods of time it's starts to hurt. i also cannot bend it much past 90 degrees. not from pain, but because there's simply too much fluid inside.
fast forward to today and why i'm here. i recently got into road cycling, saved up and bought my first real bike early last summer. my buddy and i rode together about 2-3 times a week, anywhere from 10 to 30 miles a day. i'm VERY much enjoying it and i even joined a cycling club and plan on doing a 200 mile "race" from seattle to portland this summer. but, nothing has changed with my knee. last summer when i first got my bike, i just ignored it because i was having too much fun riding and i didn't want my knee to bring me down.
now my question. what should i do about this? my bicycle fits me correctly, and when my knee is bent with my left pedal at the top, it almost reaches the point where it will not bend anymore. my fear is that if it does get worse, i wont be able to bend my knee as much as i need to and i will not be able to ride anymore. =[
ice/ heat doesn't seem to help any. but i don't want to just ignore it anymore. even more so now, since that 200 mile race this summer.
any and all help is welcome. thank you very much.